Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead- Andrew Hudgins

"...I think he wants to go,/ a little bit- a new desire/ to travel."

This poem had an interesting take on death. The speaker and her father had two different views on the issue. She did not want her father to die. He was ready. He had a totally different idea about death. He was an optimist in his view of death. He saw the positives of death and the goodness that can come out of it. He even thought of death as a trip. The comparison to a trip further reveals his carefree attitude about death because going on a trip is a regular occurance. No matter how the father feels and explains the idea of death, the daughter does not want her father to die. I do not view the speaker as a pessimist though. She never really speaks negatively about death and the terrible things associated with it. She merely just does not want her father to die. She cannot be convinced that it will be a good thing for her father to die.